A botanical side trip

While we were on vacation last week in beautiful North Myrtle Beach, So. Carolina, my husband took us to Brookgreen Gardens as an anniversary present for me. It was so thoughtful of him to think of an outing that that I would enjoy!

This place is huge. We drove down and got our tickets. They have a great native animal zoo, which the kids enjoyed. I thought it was really neat that most of the habitats were natural, as opposed to building a place for them to live, like most zoos do.

After the zoo, we took the tram back to the gardens area. First up, we toured through the children's garden...very thoughtful of them to include the little ones. Mine really liked it! It had kid-appropriate statues and sculptures (there are a TON of sculptures at this place), tunnels and secret pathways for the kids to explore.

I took some pics! Here is one thing I really liked that is at the welcome center--they have a table showing you what perennials (I think) are in bloom at the moment, complete with tags:

And a shot of my babies...Sweetie, especially, is looking like such a big girl! It was really hot that day. : )

And now, the plants...they had a great cactus garden near one of the sculpture museums.

Their hydrangeas were beautiful. I loved this shot of this bloom coming into its own.

This particular hydrangea was unbelievable. It was a teal color!

This succulent plant was really striking with its green and red colors.

I liked this elephant ear-type plant, with the underplanting of torenia. Beautiful.

I love this plant....globe amaranth (Latin name gomphrena). The shape is really unique and I love this strawberry red color.

We were amazed by the Spanish moss. How does it grow up there?

Here is another type of amaranth, but I don't know the name of this one.

I was loving the cannas they had. I wonder if they are a perennial bulb down there? In my area, you have to dig them up after a killing frost and replant the next spring.

I thought the leaves on this plant were spectacular!

This was a picture of one of my favorite sculptures/water feature. This place was exquisitely planned!

It was wonderful to walk around some beautiful gardens. A real gem down there! We had never been there and my husband has been visiting that area his whole life.